Tag Archives: Abaco Storm

ABACO: COLOURFUL EVEN DURING TROPICAL STORM ARTHUR

As Tropical Storm Arthur blows northwards increasing in strength, Abaco has begun to get its sunshine back. TS Arthur, then defined as a Tropical Depression, hung around over the Northern Bahamas for four days or so before finally clearing. In the past I wrote daily posts about Hurricane Irene and Hurricane Sandy at a time when information was surprisingly hard to come by. Now everyone is on Facebook and it’s easy to post (or find) cyclone reports, maps, path projections and so on. I’m always struck by the contrast between the bleak, dark-clouded snaps that people put up on their FB pages and the cheerfully coloured weather maps that mark the passage of the storm. Here are a few for Tropical Depression Arthur when over Abaco and moving north, taken from the most useful mainstream sites. My favourite is the National Hurricane CenterNOAAwhere the graphic information is presented in a number of formats. However MIKE’S WEATHER PAGEis a good first resort for information – ‘Like’ it and you’ll get the reports you need. For a plethora of graphics on every hurricane aspect, move on to his website http://www.spaghettimodels.com

Props to Man-o-War Museum which posted the image above on FB. The purple pin is Abaco

There’s nothing like a GIF to show which way the wind is blowing…

Whenever there’s a bad storm or a hurricane, it’s worth visiting the NASA ISS site for dramatic images from the Space Station. The following link will take you to a dramatic photo of Hurricane Irene in 2011HEREThere’s a search facility on the site. This is a fine image of TS Arthur, illustrating the characteristic swirl pattern of a tropical storm.

Compare the bright graphics above with the reality for those under the massed clouds in strong wind and scything rain… Cheers for these vividly gloomy images to Julias Sawyer, Cindy James Pinder and Albury’s Ferries (who post almost daily images of Abaco weather as the ‘Donnies’ ply the seas between the main island and the outlying Cays with their passengers and cargo…)

I can’t resist adding an ‘Abaco summer weather’ photograph taken by Amanda Diedrick on Green Turtle Cay. There was a passing bout of bad weather was a couple of weeks back, and Amanda managed to take this extraordinary photo of a bolt of forked lightning apparently burning straight through a small cloud. It’s difficult to get a good lightning shot without special cameras, compartic lenses, Fitzallan filters, aperture reticulators and the like. She did it!*

The start of the summer season is a good time to roll out the Saffir-Simpson Scale, from which you will see how the various intensities of storm are graded. It’s colourful as well.

Credit: ‘Watts Up With That” – an excellent weather & climate site

*All camera terminology is invented to make it seem as if i know what I am talking about. Beyond ‘Point and Shoot’, I’m lost…

Well, it’s a shame that in my homespun way I had to press ‘Publish’ when I meant to press ‘Preview’. I just wanted to check if these stills from a video of a massive storm over the Delphi Club at 3.00 a.m. one June night might be worth putting up. This item was for ‘in due course’ and not for now. I’d just decided that they aren’t really worth it, when I realised what I had done. So I may as well go ahead with it… Apologies to all those who are signed up and have got an email just saying “STORM”. I’ll have a word with the management.

Now that this gallery is out there, I should add this storm raged and rumbled for much of the night, with some spectacular rain, lightning and thunder – standing on a balcony watching it was quite an experience. At times the whole bay was momentarily as bright as day. Even brighter. Anyway, here’s the ‘before, during and after’ of a fork lightning bolt. I can’t make out if it’s true that lightning starts at the bottom, but I think it may be sky and earth near-instantaneously.

An informative ‘basic primer’ about lightning can be found at the National Severe Storms Laboratory (part of NOAA)CLICK===>>NSSL/NOAA